Barwa Real Estate to sell 37.34pc stake in Barwa Bank for QR2.39bn

January 21, 2014 - 10:22:42 am

DUBAI: Barwa Real Estate (BRE) said yesterday it had agreed to sell its 37.34 percent stake in unlisted Barwa Bank for QR2.39bn ($656m) as part of a wider deal to help the property developer cope with its debt burden.

The deal, which still requires government approval, is part of an existing agreement with Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Under that agreement, BRE is selling some of its assets to Diar to help eliminate its debts, BRE said in a bourse filing.

BRE said in June that Diar, which owns 45 percent of BRE, would buy assets from it worth QR26bn by the end of 2013, after BRE struggled to service debt taken on to fund its expansion.

BRE had liabilities worth QR32.64bn on its books at the end of the third quarter of 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data, down from QR50.47bn at the same point in 2012. The developer has already taken a number of cost-cutting steps including the sale of assets in Qatar and Egypt, and redundancies.

The latest transaction will reflect positively in BRE’s fourth-quarter results for 2013, the statement said. The company’s nine-month net profit was down 40 percent from a year earlier, it said in October.

BRE’s problems come despite a massive building boom in the Gulf state, as the government spends billions of dollars on new infrastructure and preparations to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. BRE announced plans last May to build an island off the coast of Doha with luxury villas and five floating hotels to house fans during the tournament at a cost of $5.5bn.

Barwa Bank is a Shariah-compliant lender with assets worth QR28.65bn as of last September, according to the latest financial statement on its website.

The bank has been planning to go public for some time, with CEO Steve Troop telling Reuters last April that it would offer 50 million shares to the public at a price of QR21 per share as one part of a QR2.05bn share sale process — pending approval by the local regulator.

Qatar Holding, the main investment arm of sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority, owns 12.1 percent of Barwa Bank, with the rest of the lender owned by several local individuals and corporations. Reuters